Professional Interviewing

Rob Millar, Valerie Crute, Owen Hargie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780415391894
• eBook ISBN: 9781351863605
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book, first published in 1992, presents a detailed, informed and informative account of research, theory and practice in interviewing. As a single source for practitioners, it focuses on the professional practice of interviewing as a strategy for achieving specific objectives. As well as providing reviews of recent research in interviewing, it includes practical examples of interviewing in many different contexts.

The authors, all of whom have wide experience of interviewing, draw on a wealth of information and insight acquired during their work. They examine the definitions and purposes of interviewing and then describe the main settings within which it takes place - counselling, selection, research, medical and appraisal. Taking a social interactional model of interviewing, they discuss the main components of the activity: person perception; interviewer goals; interview structures and stages; effective interviewing skills; and the interviewee's perspective on the interview process. Examples are used to illustrate particular issues and to highlight their relevance to practice. The authors also consider important ethical and professional problems which may crucially affect the practice of interviewing.

This book should be of interest to professionals and students in psychology, health, counselling, human resource management and business.

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is concerned with the professional practice of interviewing as a strategy for achieving specific objectives. A very large number of professional groups regularly utilise some form of interview in their face-to-face encounters with clients (Downs et al., 1980). In some cases this will be the main interpersonal strategy employed (e. g. by counsellors), while in other instances this will be one among a number of interpersonal approaches within the armoury of the professional (e. g. a nurse will make particular use of the interview to take a medical history from a patient). Regardless of the extent to which interviewing is the central job function of the professional, however, it is now generally accepted that there is a need for all those who use this method to have a deeper understanding of the core elements involved (Stewart and Cash, 1985). The approach which we will adopt in this book to the analysis of interviewing is based upon the tenet that this is a skilled activity, and as such is amenable to description, analysis and evaluation in the same way as is any other type of skilled performance.

The book itself is structured into ten chapters. This introductory chapter ‘sets the scene’ by addressing a number of basic introductory issues; it examines definitions and purposes of interviewing and outlines the main settings within which this activity occurs. Chapter two then presents a social interactional model of interviewing, which encompasses the main processes inherent in dyadic interaction. This model examines interviewing in terms of the goals, mediating factors, responses, feedback and perceptions of the participants, as well as taking into account both personal and situational influences which affect their behaviour. This model, in turn, forms the basis for the remainder of the book, in that the central components of the model are explored in detail in succeeding chapters. Chapter three develops this model to complete the theoretical foundation for the book by linking the study of interviewing directly to the discipline base of social psychology. Chapter four is concerned with aspects of person perception, chapter five examines the role of goals and goal-setting, chapters six and seven explore a range of communication skills and strategies available to interviewers, and in chapter eight attention is given to the interviewee’s perspective on the interview process. Chapter nine focuses upon a number of wider and crucially important ethical and professional issues pertaining to the practice of interviewing, while the final chapter provides an overview drawing together the significant issues raised throughout the book.

THE NATURE OF INTERVIEWING

As a starting point, any analysis of the nature of interviewing should begin with an examination of the question ‘What is an interview?’ While this question has been answered in a number of different ways, there tends to be general agreement regarding the core defining features with regard to what constitutes an interview. In order to illustrate this degree of consensus, it is useful to examine a sample of the definitions which have been proffered.

A fairly basic, although not atypical, definition is that given by Hodgson (1987, p. 2) who, in recognising the goal-directed nature of this activity, characterises the interview simply as ‘A conversation with a purpose’. Gorden (1975, p. 50) provides a more extended version of this theme when he notes that:

Any two-way conversation involves many of the same skills and insights for ‘successful interviewing’. The main difference is in the central purpose of interviewing as opposed to other forms of conversation.

This definition is elaborated upon by Beveridge (1975, p. 73) who also includes the notions of context and interviewer control when he refers to the interview as:

a conversation within a specific context and having a specific purpose, the pattern of which is directed by the interviewer.

Dickson (1986, p.146) builds upon this to add the concept of self-disclosure within a dyadic context when he describes the interview as:

a generic term encompassing a range of largely dyadic interpersonal encounters. It should be interpreted broadly to refer to a conversation engaged in for a particular purpose. The interviewer is the participant who has the major responsibility for conducting the transaction and…the interviewee is much more likely to reveal information to the interviewer, and especially personal information, than vice versa.

Lopez (1975, p. 8) highlights two further facets of interviews, namely that they are usually associated with specific environments and do not just occur in isolation from preceding or forthcoming events, when he states that:

An interview is initiated to achieve one or several objectives, takes place in a particular physical and social setting, and occurs as part of a procedural sequence of events. Further, it focuses on the present, past or future behavior, beliefs, opinions, attitudes or convictions of the interviewee.

In relation to the latter dimensions of this definition, Gorden (1975, p. 39), in discussing the most appropriate content focus for the interview, emphasises the covert domain when he asserts that:

Interviewing is most valuable when we are interested in knowing people’s beliefs, attitudes, values, knowledge, or any other subjective orientations or mental content.

From these definitions a number of themes emerge. Beveridge (1975) argues that the defining features of the interview are that it: is not a casual conversation; is limited to a particular set of topics; is organised; is directed by the interviewer; is purposeful; and takes place within a set context. In like vein, Skopec (1986) identifies the central facets of the interview as normally being: dyadic; purposeful; concerned with restricted subject matter; and characterised by questions and answers which occur in face-to-face oral communication. Rae (1988) additionally notes that interviews are: usually structured affairs; are pre-planned, preferably by both sides; are formal or at least semi-formal situations; both participants are aware that an interview is taking place and know who is to play the role of interviewer and interviewee, and they are normally seated during the encounter.

Bearing all of this in mind, the definition which we would propose for the interview is: A face-to-face dyadic interaction in which one individual plays the role of interviewer and the other takes on the role of interviewee, and both of these roles carry clear expectations concerning behavioural and attitudinal approach. The interview is requested by one of the participants for a specific purpose and both participants are willing contributors. This definition emphasises the following features:

(i) The interview is a face-to-face encounter. Although recent and rapid developments in video technology have increased the availability of mediated ‘down the line’ interviews where the participants are in different physical locations but can see one another on TV screens, such encounters are as yet by no means commonplace. They also necessitate specialised analysis given the impinging variables which remove this type of interaction from the norm and which may influence the responses of the participants. Indeed, an interesting field of study has, in fact, developed in relation to what is now known as the ‘news interview’ which can be defined as:

a functionally specialised form of social interaction produced for an over-hearing audience and restricted by institutionalised conventions.

(Heritage, 1985, p.112)

In other words, these media news interviews are conducted for the benefit of a third party – the audience. However, the study of this type of format is beyond the scope of the present book, and we will restrict our analysis to face-to-face interviews carried out for the direct benefit of at least one of the participants. (The interested reader may wish to refer to Cohen, 1987 for a useful analysis of the news interview.)

(ii) The interview is dyadic in nature. It is, of course, possible to have interviews involving more than two people. For example, many selection interviews are comprised of panels of two or more interviewers. However, for the most part interviews are dyadic affairs, and often the presence of a third person would adversely affect the interaction, especially where the subject matter being disclosed by the interviewee involves highly personal information.

(iii) Both the interviewer and interviewee are expected to behave in a manner consistent with their respective, and complementary, roles. Thus, a candidate at a selection interview will be expected to answer questions posed by the interviewer and demonstrate an interest in the vacant position, while a counsellor will be expected to listen carefully to, and show sensitivity towards, the concerns expressed by the client during a helping interview. More general expectations of many interviews are that interviewers will ask most of the questions while interviewees will make almost all of the self-disclosures (Hargie et al., 1987).

(iv) The interview will be requested by one of the participants, and this may be either the interviewer or interviewee. For instance, a research interview will normally be requested by the interviewer whereas a counselling interview is usually requested by the client.

(v) There is a clear purpose to the interview. The actual purpose will, of course, vary from one context to another. Indeed, Shouksmith (1978, p.1) argues that ‘there is no such thing as the interview but that there are many interviews’. In other words, the exact nature of an interview is dependent upon the purpose for which it has been initiated. This is emphasised by Hunt and Eadie (1987, p.5) who assert that:

All interviews can be characterised by the existence of purpose on the part of at least one of the participants.

A large number of different types of interview are carried out in different contexts and to achieve different objectives. The range of categories would include appraisal, counselling, discipline, journalistic, medical (history-taking and diagnostic), news (mediated), psychiatric, research, sales and selection.

(vi) Both parties are voluntarily involved in the interview. In this sense an interrogation would not meet our criteria for inclusion within the analysis of interviewing, since in this instance the interviewee would usually be a less than willing participant.

These six features contain the essence of ‘the interview’, and they therefore set the parameters for the content of the remainder of this book. It is also recognised, of course, that all interviews take place within a set context, and that this context includes the specialised and well-defined nature of certain types of interview.

TYPES OF INTERVIEW

Although many different types of interview have been described in the literature, those which have been the central focus for research and evaluation would seem to fall into five main categories, namely counselling (or helping), selection (or employment), research, medical and appraisal. While this book is concerned with interviewing in general, we will use examples from these five categories to illustrate particular issues and highlight their relevance to practice. It is therefore useful at the outset to examine each type of interview briefly, in order to provide an outline of a range of situational contexts which can then serve as a precursor for examples employed in the remainder of the book.

The counselling interview

The term ‘counselling’ is in some senses much abused, in that it is used by many different people to refer to many different activities. There are financial counsellors, employment counsellors and beauty counsellors, to name but a few. In most of these cases, counselling is seen as being synonymous with advice-giving. A similar usage can be found in the medical sphere where patient counselling and education are frequently viewed as the same activity (Morrow and Hargie, 1989).

However, there is another perspective to the concept of counselling, as detailed by the British Association for Counselling (1979, p.1) whereby:

The task of counselling is to give the client an opportunity to explore, discover and clarify ways of living more resourcefully and toward greater well-being.

This meaning of the term is underlined by Hopson (1981, p. 267) who defines counselling as:

helping someone to explore a problem, clarify conflicting issues and discover alternative ways of dealing with it, so that they can decide what to do about it; that is, helping people to help themselves.

Counselling in this therapeutic sense is a field of study and practice which has witnessed an enormous growth of interest in the past decade. This is evidenced by the vast proliferation of publications pertaining to research, theory and practice, by the increasing number of courses aimed specifically at counsellor training and by the growth in full-time employment opportunities for counsellors in the private and public sectors. All of this has led to an increasingly professional approach to counselling. At the same time, as with any field of academic endeavour, it has also led to a diversification of theoretical and practical perspectives. Thus, there are now a number of theories relating to the nature of counselling, each with its own conceptual base and accompanying practical implications for implementation (Ivey et al., 1987).

There is, however, a core thread running through all of these approaches. Thus, Hopson (1981) has identified the main general objectives of counselling as being to help clients to:

- develop a relationship where they will feel understood and will be prepared to openly and honestly discuss personal matters;

- acquire a deeper insight and understanding of their situation;

- fully discuss alternative courses of action an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• 1 Introduction
• 2 A social interactional model of the interview
• 3 Social psychological perspectives
• 4 Social perception
• 5 Goals, goal setting and feedback
• 6 Interviewer tactics
• 7 Social skills and interviewing
• 8 The interviewee’s perspective
• 9 The professional context of interviewing
• 10 Concluding comments
• References
• Name index
• Subject index